Huge Update on the Future of THE WALKING DEAD

The Walking Dead

Right, first things first, seriously, don’t proceed any further whatsoever unless you’re utterly and completely up to date with AMC’s The Walking Dead. Don’t tell us we didn’t warn you…

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Is that enough space? We guess we’ll find out.

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Still with us? Splendid.

So, with series mainstay Andrew Lincoln having now left The Walking Dead – an episode that aired last night in the US, and that will be seen tonight in the UK – it turns out that Rick Grimes hasn’t been given the bloody, brutal send-off that many envisioned.

Instead of becoming walker chow, we instead saw Rick just about left alive. With a herd of shuffling undead heading for Alexandria, the ever-grizzled Grimes blew up a bridge in order to protect the community from these walkers. Not only did that isolate Rick from his crew of survivors, but he almost killed himself in the process. By the time the episode came to a close, Rick was found by Jadis and rescued by the ominous helicopter that has been patrolling the skies over the past few weeks.

Make no mistake, mind, Rick Grimes is completely done (for now…) with The Walking Dead in terms of the straight-up TV show, but we’ve now heard how Rick will instead be the main focus of a trilogy of TV movies from AMC.

The Walking Dead chief content officer Scott M. Gimple told EW, “It is really important for the audience to know that we are going to be continuing to tell the story of Rick Grimes in these AMC Studios original films. We don’t want this thing to be like, ‘Oh, well, he’ll be back on the show any moment now.’ We are telling Rick’s story in another medium, and it’s going to be these AMC Studios original films. They’re going to be on AMC, most probably. They’re centred around Rick Grimes.”

Gimple continued, “We’re going to tell the story of what happens after that helicopter flight, and these are going to be big, epic entertainment. Each are quality films. That’s what’s been happening in the industry. We’ve seen Netflix make these, basically, studio films for people to watch in their homes, and we’re going to be doing the same sort of thing here.”

When it comes to where things stand with these movies right now, Gimple explained, “I am extremely hard at work on the first one right now, and most likely filming next year, though I’m freaking out about deadlines right now, so I’m not going to tell you exactly when because it will only make me pass out. But it really is going to be sooner than later. On the flip side, these are not going to be made on television schedules. This is going to be on feature schedules, and they’re going to be big, so they’re going to take a minute to make.”

The Walking Dead

Well, this is all a major shake-up for The Walking Dead, then. In fact, could a move like this be just the shake-up that so many longtime fans of the show have been clamouring for? We guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Expect more on these Walking Dead movies as we get it.

Virginia Madsen Joins SWAMP THING

Virginia Madsen

As the DC Universe-exclusive Swamp Thing continues to flesh out its cast, now comes word that the series has added another genre fave to its ranks.

Via Deadline, the Oscar-nommed Virginia Madsen has signed on to play Maria Sunderland in Swamp Thing. Madsen, of course, is a massive favourite of many for efforts such as Dune, Candyman and Sideways, while the Maria character is someone whose grief leads her towards the supernatural mysteries that reside within the swamp.

Already on board for Swamp Thing are Derek Mears as the titular creature, Crystal Reed as Abby Arcane, Maria Sten as Liz Tremayne, Jeryl Prescott as Madame Xanadu, and Jennifer Beals as Lucilia Cable.

The Swamp Thing pilot is due to premiere on DC Universe next year.

The Arrowverse’s ELSEWORLDS Adds the Psycho-Pirate

Bob Frazer Psycho-Pirate

As anticipation continues to rise for this December’s Arrowverse crossover, now comes word on another comic book favourite who’ll be featured in this ensemble effort.

Via Entertainment Weekly, The 100’s Bob Frazer has been cast as the Psycho-Pirate. It’s already been confirmed that this year’s crossover – titled Elseworlds – will be made up of three episodes instead of the regular four, and Psycho-Pirate will be a part of the final two episodes. Reportedly, our heroes will meet Psycho-Pirate when they visit Arkham Asylum.

In terms of what we know about Elseworlds so far, the big piece of info is that the crossover will introduce Ruby Rose as Batwoman. The villain of the piece will be Jeremy Davies as an Arkham doctor called John Deegan, and LaMonica Garrett is also on board as the Monitor. Thanks to some of the images shared out by the cast, we’ve also seen Stephen Amell decked out as The Flash and Grant Gustin in full Green Arrow garb.

For those unfamiliar with the Psycho-Pirate, he’s a fascinating character. While the whole Crisis on Infinite Earths saw Barry Allen sacrifice himself, Pirate is one of only a handful of characters who were able to recall Barry’s death and the destruction of the multiverse. Due to this, Psycho-Pirate is often deemed insane by many. As for powers, his main ability sees him use his Medusa Mask to absorb and tinker with people’s emotions.

Elseworlds will take in The Flash, Supergirl, and Arrow this December, with DC’s Legends of Tomorrow sitting out the crossover event this time out.

PENNY DREADFUL Sequel Series in Development

Penny Dreadful: City of Angels

Well, this is some pretty great news, right?! Yes, as the title suggests, Penny Dreadful is returning to our screens. Well, kind of.

Courtesy of Variety, Showtime has ordered a Penny Dreadful sequel series. The Oscar-nommed John Logan will be back to serve as showrunner for what’s titled Penny Dreadful: City of Angels.

The early word is that this new series will fast forward several decades and be focussed on tales based in Mexican-American folklore. The original Penny Dreadful, of course, was a three-season affair that featured the likes of Dracula, Dorian Gray, Dr Jekyll, and Victor Frankenstein.

On this follow-up series, Logan enthused, “Penny Dreadful: City of Angels will have a social consciousness and historical awareness that we chose not to explore in the Penny Dreadful London storylines. We will now be grappling with specific historical and real world political, religious, social and racial issues. In 1938, Los Angeles was facing some hard questions about its future and its soul. Our characters must do the same. There are no easy answers. There are only powerful questions and arresting moral challenges. As always in the world of Penny Dreadful, there are no heroes or villains in this world, only protagonists and antagonists; complicated and conflicted characters living on the fulcrum of moral choice.”

Penny Dreadful: City of Angels will start production next year.

Ewan McGregor is BIRDS OF PREY’s Black Mask

Ewan McGregor Black Mask

It’s been a busy ol’ week here at Moonbase Alpha, what with Halloween celebrations and the sinister presence of a print deadline, but one of the major news stories centres on Warner Brothers’ upcoming Birds of Prey movie.

Via Variety, we now know that Ewan McGregor will be playing the nefarious Roman Sionis, aka Black Mask, in the picture. We’d already heard how Black Mask is to be the ‘big bad’ of the Cathy Yan-helmed film, and now we know that the former Obi-Wan Kenobi has landed that particular role.

Going back to his roots, Roman Sionis debuted back in 1985’s Batman #386. Created by Doug Moench and Tom Mandrake, the early word on the silver screen incarnation of the rogue has him pegged as “a brutally sadistic kingpin leading a gang called the False Face Society in Gotham City’s criminal underworld who has a fixation with masks.”

Throughout the years, the villain, like many of the Caped Crusader’s rivals, has seen his place on the totem pole vary; at times being a run-of-the-mill bad guy, at others being a truly sinister presence who is capable of all kinds of twisted acts.

In Birds of Prey, McGregor’s Sionis will be going up against Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Huntress, Jurnee Smollet-Bell as Black Canary, Rosie Perez as Renee Montoya, and a to-be-cast Cassandra Cain. And yes, already there are rumblings and speculation that McGregor may well face off against Batman at some point down the line, with him likely to have signed either a multi-picture deal or a deal that has the potential for him to be brought back to the big screen in the future.

Birds of Prey is currently booked in for a February 2020 release.

Andy Muschietti to Direct Warners’ ATTACK ON TITAN Adaptation

Attack on Titan

With Warner Brothers looking to bring Attack on Titan to live-action life, The WB has found a director for this hotly anticipated adap.

Courtesy of Variety, Andy Muschietti has been given to the nod to helm this new take on a beloved favourite. Muschietti, of course, is likely best known to genre fans for directing Mama and IT (plus the in-production IT: Chapter Two).

Attack on Titan itself is an iconic manga series written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama, and with a huge amount of sales behind it. Since debuting back in 2009, the series has amassed over 76 million sales. Pretty ridiculous, right?

The basic gist of Attack on Titan centres on a skewed world in with mankind exists in cities protected by ginormous walls. What are we protecting ourselves from? Oh, just your hulking, monstrous, giant humanoids known as titans. Already, Attack on Titan has been adapted as an anime series and a two-part live-action movie over in Japan.

Expect more on Warner Brothers’ upcoming live-action spin as it continues to develop.

Adi Shankar Developing a LEGEND OF ZELDA TV Series?

Zelda

Having already impressed many with Castlevania, it looks like producer Adi Shankar may now be eyeing up The Legend of Zelda.

Shankar himself took to social media to confirm that he’s working on something, and he similarly confirmed that this new project will be based on a famed video game:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

The success of Castlevania created this opportunity.

A post shared by Adi Shankar’s Bootleg Universe (@bootleguniverse) on

While Shankar clearly doesn’t make any mention of Zelda, The Wrap has word that talks are indeed ongoing for Shankar to develop The Legend of Zelda as a series – although there is no indication yet on whether any such show would be a live-action effort or take the lead of Castlevania and be an animated affair.

The Legend of Zelda began life as a creation of Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka back in 1986. That first game was released on the NES in 1986, with plentiful further games released on an array of Nintendo systems over the subsequent decades. The basic plot point of the original game – and most of the follow-up releases – saw the player controlling Link as he has to rescue Princess Zelda. An animated Zelda series has already been seen, with 1989 giving us the largely guff Legend of Zelda cartoon that was canned after one solitary season.

Expect more on this as it continues to develop.

SWAMP THING Adds Jeryl Prescott as Madame Xanadu

Jeryl Prescott Madame Xanadu

As Warner Brothers continues to flesh out the cast for its DC Universe-exclusive live-action Swamp Thing show, now comes word of another new addition.

Courtesy of The Wrap, Jeryl Prescott has landed the role of Madame Xanadu in the series. Xanadu is a character who debuted back in 1978’s Doorway to Nightmare #1, depicted as a centuries-old blind sorceress and fortune teller who has a, err, unique approach to battling all things evil. Prescott is a favourite of many due to her turns in the likes of The Walking Dead, Powers, and The Skeleton Key. In Swamp Thing, she’ll join Derek Mears as the titular creature, Maria Sten as Liz Tremayne, and Crystal Reed as Abby Arcane.

Swamp Thing will premiere on DC Universe next year.

Christopher Meloni is HARLEY QUINN’s Jim Gordon

Christopher Meloni Jim Gordon

Fresh off the news that genre fave Alan Tudyk is to voice The Joker in DC Universe’s upcoming Harley Quinn animated series, now comes word on who’ll be lending their vocals to Jim Gordon.

Via Discussing Film, it’s now been confirmed that Happy!’s Christopher Meloni is to voice Commissioner Gordon. We already knew that Meloni was on board for a role in Harley Quinn, and now Deidrich Bader has spilled this news.

Bader himself is reprising his Caped Crusader role from Batman: The Brave and the Bold, with Kaley Cuoco as the titular Harleen and the aforementioned Tudyk as the Clown Prince of Crime.

Harley Quinn is set to premiere on DC Universe at a to-be-confirmed point in 2019.

Check Out the New Anderson Show FIRESTORM

firestorm

Standby for more action as Anderson Entertainment – the company founded by legendary puppet master Gerry Anderson has released the pilot for Firestorm, the first new Anderson production since 2005.

When Gerry passed away in 2012, it was a sad time for fans but now we can enjoy a new show from the company, now run by his son, Jamie.

Gerry Anderson’s Firestorm is a new action adventure science fiction series for television comprising 26 episodes of 22 minutes each, all filmed in Ultramarionation, a real, physical way of making TV featuring advanced animatronic puppets, miniatures, physical sets, and real explosions. The first series of 26 commercial half hour episodes is now in pre-production, with partners Raydar Media, before entering production, which is anticipated to start early in 2019.

The series is set in 2102. Thanks to technological improvements climate change has been brought under control, food and energy are plentiful, and violence has all but disappeared.

But just when people are at their most contented, the problems start… Explosions, sabotage, large-scale thefts of military equipment, kidnapping… the only clue as to the perpetrators is a name – BLACK ORCHID. Earth’s environmental protectors – STORM FORCE – are quickly repurposed into a force to fight this mysterious assailant. Their new operation codename… FIRESTORM.

As clues are uncovered, Black Orchid seems to be an alien contingent. But what are they up to? As Storm Force discover more – including strange telepathic technology – the alien explanation looks increasingly likely. But when Storm Force come face to face with Black Orchid they discover their true origins…

 

Jamie Anderson, Managing Director of Anderson Entertainment and son of Gerry Anderson, MBE, who will be producing the new series and leading an A-grade team of seasoned industry professionals, says, “We’ve updated the Firestorm concept my father created with the development of ‘Ultramarionation’, the next generation of production techniques to really bring the ‘wow’ factor back to the small screen.”

Firestorm is a Gerry Anderson concept from 2001. This new version has been redeveloped from Gerry’s original synopsis and story outline documents with a talented team including many who worked with Gerry including FX Supervisor Steve Begg (Casino Royale, Skyfall, Spectre), Miniature FX Supervisor Mike Tucker (Doctor Who, Red Dwarf) and Production design consultant Richard Gregory (Dark Knight, Walking with Dinosaurs, Event Horizon).

Check out the mini episode below and let us know what you think. We think it’s FAB!